


the killing joke, refined

by yerimoney



Category: Red Velvet (K-pop Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Batman Fusion, Ambiguous Relationships, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Batman: The Killing Joke, But its only mentioned, Gen, Violence, irene as batman, joker.... joy.... get it.... haha, joy as joker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:41:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27388891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yerimoney/pseuds/yerimoney
Summary: “we’ve been going at it for years now,” the raven-haired woman stands, dark and looming. her eyes are closed. “without killing each other. soon enough we’ll run out of any other alternatives.”(a look into the relationship between a superhero and a villain; based off the ending of "the killing joke" by alan moore and dcau)
Relationships: Bae Joohyun | Irene & Park Sooyoung | Joy, Kang Seulgi/Park Sooyoung | Joy
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10





	the killing joke, refined

**Author's Note:**

> some of you may know this as [a oneshot i published in 2018](https://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/1285778/6/joy-and-irene-killing-j) under a series on aff. it was my first and only try at a joyrene batman/joker au — in fact, it was my very first try at writing anything remotely joyrene (and we see where that rabbit hole led) — but after some enthusiastic discussion with my friend and daydreaming about rv batfamily au i've decided to edit and repost it. i tried to tie up some sloppy knots from my writing in 2018 and tried to fuse it together with my writing style now, so i hope it doesn't get too cringy or too confusing. will i ever delve into this au again? i am not answering questions

she sighs. "we don't have to do this."

the stammering comes to a stillstop. “what?”

“we’ve been going at it for years now,” the raven-haired woman stands, dark and looming. her eyes are closed. “without killing each other. soon enough we’ll run out of any other alternatives.” 

opposite, a free bird laughs. "that's what you think. sadly, batwoman, no, this will have to go on. i’ll always find new toys to play with, and you’ll rush over to stop me. always as promised. cycle repeats. you're not, ah,  _ bored with it _ , are you?" joy grins, tapping her cheek.

"oh, don’t look at me like that. you'll learn to love it! everything is a used-up joke nowadays," she explains, still smiling with those red lips of hers. she expects her to get it, but no response is offered, so she continues on.

"ever figured out how world war iii was about to start? geese. a flock of geese on the screen!" she laughs, and it's piercing. batwoman winces. "we get so worked up over the smallest things!" and she is laughing uncontrollably now, and holding her stomach. "come on. laugh with me. like, like- did you see what i did to junmyeon's daughter?"

she sees the caped crusader's eyes harden. "that was not funny at all-"

"did you see how junmyeon turned out?" her throat constricted, her fists clenched. " _ ’oh, batwoman, try to teach her that our ways do work. i won’t be so easily broken-’ _ what. an. annoying. guy! i tried to teach him all it takes is just another bad day,  _ one bad day- _ "

"was that what happened to you?" batwoman asks, not showing any sign of releasing tension. joy sighs. maybe she hasn't gotten it yet.

"i think so. i don't remember," she scratches at her face, not really trying to remember anyways. but it does comes to her in short snippets. the full picture just never settles in.

she laughs, just like she did all those years ago. they say the worst memories last forever. what a joke. "don't press me for details. i really don't remember anything. but something bad must have happened, you know?”

she remembers screaming at the sight before her that night  — grotesque, terrifying, all-black. the monster had thrown the two guys beside her across the factory, not even stopping to hear the spine-chilling  _ crack  _ of their bones. she remembers scrambling back, breathing heavily, the pounding in her head-

wait.  _ spine-chilling. _ hah!

she stops for a moment to laugh at her own joke again. and when the laughter dies down, returning to silence, she speaks again. "it was a bad day. i got pretty mad, you know! and here you are.

"that's what happened to you, yeah?" she asks, her voice somber; genuine concern for a small moment before fading away. "you lost someone. it was a pretty bad day, wasn't it."

batwoman stays silent, the slits in her hood not revealing any emotion. "yeah," she finally says. "but i didn't go around killing people and try to make a wasteland out of gotham."

"bat, you don’t even  _ like  _ gotham.” she interjects.

the corners of her lips turn up at the other woman’s lack of response. “you’re above the rest of us. and you wanna come around telling  _ me  _ what i should be doing with us?”

but there is something she does love about the idea of her dear masked hero. to be more than even a city is not a privilege everyone gets to enjoy.

she grins. “you need me, batwoman." 

there’s a clench of the jaw too pronounced to be subtle, before the other woman speaks. “you’re my longest case, joy. a glorified, genocidal psychopath with just more than just a few jokes under your belt. i think it’d quite be the opposite.” 

there’s a tiredness to her voice, too.

"no, no, you don’t understand my meaning,” joy holds her hands up in jest. she’ll have to be more clear about it, she figures.

“ _ batsyyyyyy, _ batsy. why be a disfigured outcast when i can be a notorious crime god? why be an orphaned girl when you can be a superheroine? 

“maybe that's where i can relate," she looks up to the ceiling. in a flash moment, she realizes.

no, she couldn’t possibly care about irene bae, for all her money and her looks and her philanthropy and genius  — the poor girl who had her parents killed in adolescence, the little girl who held her mother’s head in hands and cried until her throat was raw and the blood dried in her hands. no, she couldn’t.

there has to be  _ some  _ kind of joke that comes out of this.

and when her eyes settle on the all-black cowl, detached and aloof, face underneath almost stretched into a scowl, her laugh feels like liberation.

oh, this is the best joke, isn’t it?

“lighten up a little, batwoman,” she chides. “you're too serious to take a joke. a bad day is just a bad day to you, isn't it?"

she remembers choking in chemical vat, too helpless and too in-pain to get out. she remembers the black monster, leaving before she blacked out. she remembers being washed out. joking a little. pulling off a red hood, and holding back a scream seeing her own green tinted hair and red lips and white skin.

she wonders where that black monster is now. if they’ve had a bad day just as good as hers. if they even remember who joy was, or cared enough to do so.

“it’s not.”

irene is so boring. she doesn’t quite understand what joy is getting at, is she? it’s obvious why’d she want this to stop. 

she continues to stay silent after that, and joy grows annoyed. "no fun. say something."

"would you come back with me?" batwoman whispers. it's the first time she's heard her say something so soft, so uncertain.

maybe, just maybe, secret identities live on even when you're involved in gotham city crime. in the way irene gazes at the alley even when chasing criminals, trying to suppress the screams she heard from her mother. the way joy finds herself somehow attracted to the funfair when she searches for locations, where teddy bears are sold in yellow ribbons.

"please repeat, i can't hear you."

"i could take you in." batwoman says, more confidently this time. "we could work together. you lost someone. i know what it's like, i know how much it hurts. but i figured a way out of that. maybe you can too. we don't have to go on like this. if we do go on, one of us has to die sooner or later. and we don't have to."

"you're suggesting i be rehabilitated," she summarizes. she shakes her head, clicks her tongue at such ignorance. "it's too late for that ...far too late."

"what you repeatedly don't seem to get, my dear batwoman," she places her hands on the heroine's shoulders and leans in, "is that i am very, very  _ mad. _ "

she stays there for a while. she hears irene’s breath so close to hers, slow and steady. 

if she’s the first person to say it, irene has really warm eyes. she wonders if anyone has ever told her that.

joy lets her take a good look in hers. wonders again if the world’s greatest detective can see what exactly is going on inside. maybe if she focused on that, she’d tell joy the answer, because joy had forgotten it a long time ago. and she’s been searching for it since.

_ whatever went wrong that night?  _

as she started laughing, staring at her reflection all those years ago, she pushed down that question down her throat and never looked back.

the raven-haired woman would understand.

she chuckles before batwoman does anyway. "ah, this is funny. reminds me of a joke. would you mind if i told you?"

she continues anyway. " _ see, there were these two guys in a lunatic asylum... and one night, one night they decide they don't like living in an asylum any more. they decide they're going to escape! so, like, they get up onto the roof, and there, just across this narrow gap, they see the rooftops of the town, stretching away in the moon light... stretching away to freedom. now, the first guy, he jumps right across with no problem. but his friend, his friend did not dare make the leap. y'see... y'see, he's afraid of falling. so then, the first guy has an idea... he says 'hey! i have my flashlight with me! i'll shine it across the gap between the buildings. you can walk along the beam and join me!' b-but the second guy just shakes his head. he suh-says... he says 'wh-what do you think i am? crazy? you'd turn it off when i was half way across! _ "

she pulls away for a moment, holding her stomach again. "i'm so sorry, i need to-" she laughs like crazy, gasping a little. she slaps her thighs, barking.

in the corner of her vision, batwoman smiles a little and lets out a chuckle. and she does too. 

she'd fall off that beam even before joohyun turned it off.

and then they're laughing together, and nothing has felt better. two voices laughing because of one joke. she made her laugh! that was just pure  _ joy. _

irene moves towards her and wraps an arm around her shoulders, forearm slightly ghosting her neck. she feels the vibrations from her body and the laughter that's soft and dainty, a stark contrast to hers.

(sooyoung wonders if she ever made seulgi laugh even when the bills were unpaid and the crowd stared at her jokes blankly.)

_ "ahahaha! hah, haha, ha-" _

**Author's Note:**

> hmu on curiouscat @ireneshands or twitter @irenesbians. leave kudos and comments if you'd like


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